Such a system is useful for delivering reliable estimates of the location and the orientation of an object. The system can be used either in a multipath radio environment in which the object, that is the subject of the location and orientation finding, does not share a direct line of sight with the positioning radio station or in a radio environment in which there is at least one line of sight between the object to locate and the positioning station. Such a system is able to operate in indoor and outdoor environments. It provides also spatial filtering solutions that are useful for other wireless network services, such as interference mitigation and capacity improvement.
The localization of a remote object needs intermediate parameters concerning the relative localization and orientation of intermediate relay nodes. In this case, it is important to know perfectly not only the relative location of relay nodes but also their relative orientation.
An orientation finder device of the above kind is known from the patent document EP 11617 601 which is related to ad hoc networks. The system, as disclosed in this patent document is intended to provide the positioning information needed by these networks.
Another application is related to clusters of marine buoys which are floating in the sea in view to measure some water parameters such as: temperature, salinity . . . and also other aerial ones such as strength of the wind and so on, concerning a given area. The geographical orientations of these buoys must be considered with care in view of the trajectory planning.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device having better performance than prior art and, notably, to provide orientation of objects without a need of many access points or anchor points (GPS satellites are using triangulation).